ROUTE DESCRIPTION - Walk 3, Ashridge and Ivinghoe Beacon
OS Explorer Maps required: 181
Approximate distance: 12.5 miles
Start at the car park at the Bridgewater Monument, Ashridge (SP 972132)
CLOCKWISE
From the car park, walk across the grass towards the Bridgewater Monument (look along the drive and Prince’s Riding to see Ashridge House in the distance). Pass just to the right of the monument. There is a track running along the far side of the grass, cross this and take the level track going into the trees (you may see a waymark for the Ashridge Estate Boundary Trail, which is followed for much of this walk). The track is well surfaced, and follows the edge of the steep escarpment of the Chilterns (to your left) for about two miles. About two thirds of the way along here there is a boarding kennels on the right, at Clipper Down. Shortly after, the public footpath on the map (and the Ashridge Estate Boundary Trail) goes left but stay on the track (Access Land area). When the track finally reaches a road, cross it and turn left (when you reach the trees there is a path a few feet from the road – not shown on map, but again this is all Access Land). After a short while there is a car park – where a grass island in the car park ends, look for a gap in the hedge and a path running beside a fence (on the right of the path). Follow the path slightly downhill. There are two lumps or hillocks before you reach Ivinghoe Beacon – as the path goes over the shoulder of the first, go slightly left to another chalky path that goes to the top of Ivinghoe Beacon (SP 959168).
Turn right and follow the path along the top of the grassy ridge towards Gallows Hill (you are now back on the route of the Ashridge Estate Boundary Trail, which is generally well waymarked). Go through a wooden kissing gate and continue along the ridge. Cross a stile and continue on until reaching a crossing chalky track. Turn right and follow the track downhill, then turn right again, initially with a hedgerow on the left. Follow the path across a large field and continue on to a stile. The path goes slightly left to a path junction where you go left (now briefly on the route of the Icknield Way Path, which started at Ivinghoe Beacon). Go through a kissing gate and follow the waymarked path through the woods (at first deciduous then a rather spooky coniferous section). On reaching a track near the far side of the woods, follow it right a short distance before forking left on a path that climbs a steep flight of steps through the woods. On exiting the woods at the top of the hill, follow the path across a pasture to the yard of Ward’s Hurst Farm. Continue ahead, with waymarks showing the way between outbuildings. Now follow the path across three fields (usually sheep pastures). In a fourth such pasture, the path follows the edge of Ringshall Coppice on your left. Continue to follow the edge of the trees on your left, through a sequence of gates and across a meadow. The path then goes to the left of a reservoir and turns right behind it, joining a drive which leads to a road in Ringshall (SP 983143).
Follow the footpath almost opposite, back into the trees of Ashridge, with an open grass area a short distance to your right. Turn left on reaching the end of the path (it’s not really clear if this is a junction or just a sharp turn), then go right after a short distance, only to turn left again when reaching another track (you can follow the waymarks here for the Ashridge Estate Boundary Trail). This takes you to a road. Cross the road and continue on the path opposite (not shown on map, not Access Land, but part of the NT’s Ashridge Estate Boundary Trail). There are initially gardens to your left and a golf course on the right. After half a mile, when the path reaches some garden hedges on the left, turn right at a path crossroads (leaving the Ashridge Estate Boundary Trail for a while but joining a section of the Chiltern Way). Carefully cross part of the golf course and then follow the path between hedges and fences. At the end, cross a drive and a corner of grass to the left of a ‘green’ on the golf course to reach a junction of private roads, where you cross over and take the road going straight ahead. After a few hundred yards, at a waymark sign take the path through the trees (follow the yellow posts), with the Golf Club car park to your left. Pass to the right of the club house, and carefully cross a fairway with the green to your right to an obvious waymark post. Continue ahead on the waymarked path through the trees, passing the buildings of Old Park Lodge (SP 984127) on your right.
Continue ahead on the tarmac drive, which soon crosses the broad grass strip of Prince’s Riding (Ashridge House to your left, the Monument to the right). Shortly after, as the drive turns right, take the waymarked track continuing ahead. After a few yards, fork left off the track onto a narrow path through the trees. There is soon a large open field to your left. Just after the end of this, turn left (leaving the Chiltern Way) onto a bridleway along an avenue of beech trees, with the field to your left again. Keep to the path to the RIGHT of the trees, as after about a quarter of a mile, you want to follow it as it goes half-right to pass to the right of the gardens of Woodyard Cottages - if you miss this turn, no matter as you will pass to the left of the cottages. Either way, turn right along the drive to the cottages and follow it to Coldharbour Farm (it says Great Coldharbour on the gate) (SP 988113).
Take the path ahead (now back on the route of the Ashridge Estate Boundary Trail), with the farm on your right. The path enters a field, passes to the right of an overgrown pond, then crosses the field diagonally to the far left corner. A good track then follows a hedgerow on your left for about half a mile. In the field corner, the track goes left and then right, along the edge of a wood on your left. Where the track goes left again, take the path ahead, along a hedge on your right. The right of way cuts the far corner of this field (but the actual path seems to follow the field edge round the corner). Take care to keep to the path across the subsequent polo field, walking in a straight line between the white marker posts either side. Turn right and follow the waymarks through Northchurch Farm. A few yards beyond the farm entrance there is a way mark post – if you look right here, you will see there are actually two paths going right here, you want to take the one furthest from the farm. Follow this bridleway, soon passing a circle of conifers on your left, and continue on it as it goes half-right where another path comes in sharply from the left. You soon reach the B4506 road (SP 978099).
Cross the road and continue on the path opposite, soon reaching a drive, where you turn left (there is a good chance to see Fallow Deer along this drive and in the woods on the next half mile or so). At a waymark post (shortly before reaching the property at the end of the drive), turn right along a path just inside the edge of the woods of Northchurch Common, with fields to your left. The path rises and then descends – at a junction in the bottom of the small valley, the Ashridge Estate Boundary Trail goes right, but this walk goes straight on, following the edge of the wood uphill again and then bearing right.
When the path emerges from the trees, follow the path straight ahead, with the hillside sloping down to your right. The path emerges on a corner of a large expanse of grass (part of Northchurch Common). Go straight ahead, alongside the trees on your left. Where these turn left, turn left and follow the path as it curves right to rejoin the line of trees. Pass a line of bushes and bracken coming in from the right. Just before the path starts to curve right, take an unsigned path going left into the trees. Cross over a bridleway after about 100 yards, then at a junction after a similar distance turn right. Follow this to a road, and continue on the broad track opposite. After about three quarters of a mile this leads to the drive to the monument, with the car park a short distance to your left.
The Bridgewater Monument is a Doric column 108 feet high, with 107 steps inside leading to a viewing platform (not always open). It was erected in 1832 as a tribute to the 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, “the Father of Inland Navigation”. He commissioned the Worsley-Liverpool canal (often cited as the first canal of the modern era) and the Manchester-Liverpool canal, and his canal and coal interests eventually made him the wealthiest aristocrat in the country. He died in 1803 at the age of 66.
The Ashridge estate stretches acros the Hertfordshire/Buckinghamshire border, and originally surrounded Ashridge Priory, founded in 1276 by Edmund, 2nd Earl of Cornwall. A later house on the site was once the home of Elizabeth 1. From 1604 to 1848, the estate belonged to the Egerton family, the Dukes and Earls of Bridgewater. The 3rd Duke, the famous canal builder, demolished the old house here but died before work commenced on its replacement. So the current gothic extravaganza was built by his heirs – it is now an internationally famous management college. In 1921 the land (but not the house) was given to the National Trust. There are 5000 acres in all, mainly woodland (especially beech) but also chalk downland and open commons, supporting a variety of wildlife (including about 800 Fallow Deer).
Ivinghoe Beacon is a prominent hill jutting out from the escarpment of the Chiltern Hills, rising to a height of 817 feet above sea level. It is in Buckinghamshire, though very close to the county boundaries of both Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire. It was the site of an Iron Age hill fort, being a natural defensive position with steep sides almost all the way round. It is the starting point of both the Ridgeway (going west) and the Icknield Way (going east). It is usually visited for the extensive views towards Dunstable Downs and over the Vale of Aylesbury, but it is also popular with walkers and model-aeroplane enthusiasts, and is a good site for wildflowers (including pyramidal and common spotted orchids).